Demonstrate your loyalty to the party. That voice is buzzing in my ear, nagging at me to kneel. But yet I stand over the shoulder of a life. A scar thin as paper slides down his neck and into his uniform. I recognize its pattern, the curve before it dips. My feet step, scuffle into the officer who pushes me back. My thoughts are incapacitated, unmoving and heavier than lead. No, it's not who it is. He mutters something into the crackling gunfire and I stiffen with him. The truth solidifed in space and time, as did he.